Teamwork makes the dream work and also the perfect ‘dinosaur castle’!!

Negotiating days and balancing ways spent imagining together here at Jollies xxxx

Boundless energy leads to determined little ones whose confidence and belief in their abilities leads to them challenging their bodies’ capabilities as they stretch and balance and climb!

Gross motor skill developing ways and rising to the challenge days spent risk-assessing and exploring here at Jollies xxxx

After closely observing her children and their current interests and the choices of resources they were selecting from around the room Latisha filled the mini activity table’s containers with…..blocks (before this they had been brimming with slime, water, shredded paper and water beads to name but a few of their previous contents…)

Then she stepped back to observe and reflect upon what they would do next and how they would use them!

The group really enjoyed finding the blocks in the tray and exploring them carefully comparing their different sizes and shapes.

One little one thought of an idea of making her very own farm whereby she had cats and dogs on there too saying, “I love cats and dogs!” She was loving adding all the different blocks one by one and imagining them to be her ‘animals’ and she told Latisha exactly what their names were too!

So much building occurred; but not just of farms; we saw tall towers, houses, airports, a zoo…. These blocks became literally anything our little ones wanted them to be as the only limit was our children’s imaginations!!

The building was also interspersed with an impromptu game of peekaboo, as the actions of one little one when they crouched down to pick up a fallen block led to further crazy fun under the table!!! They all really loved playing peekaboo under the trays with their friends having lots of giggles as they imagined and built away together. It was wonderful to watch them driving their play forwards together.

Collaboration, communication and cooperation continued as our children inspired each other to build and play in the way their hearts’ desired…. xxxx

They make our days that little bit brighter, our jokes that little bit funnier, our puzzles that little bit easier, our play that little bit more imaginative, our games that little bit more fun and our hugs that little bit more special

We are so lucky to share such warmth and fun with our friends here at nursery xxxx

A new train track was recently donated to Jollies so Tracey passed it Exploring Elephants way as she thought they would love it… and they definitely did!!

Jade and Latisha set their children a challenge…. to see whether they could build the train track just like the one on the box?!

Although their creation didn’t turn out exactly like the one on the box it was still their very own representation of the image… and they were all very satisfied that their collaboration, cooperation, close observation, fine motor manipulation and imagination as they used their pictorial cue had paid off!

Proving the process, rather than the product , is the most important thing here at Jollies xxxx

Team Jollies have such amazing bonds with their children and this leads to them getting totally immersed in the fun as everyone learns, explores and develops through their play!

Jade joined her children in sliding down the ramp outside in our huge garden area and they were delighted to have their extra special grown up, literally hand in hand, sharing in their adventure!! Xxxx

That was how one of our little ones summed up our day at the farm!

We have had a WONDERFUL day and we want to say a massive thank you to Aidy, our superb guide, who looked after us, kept us safe and shared his knowledge of all the animals on this working farm.

The day was made even more special as not only did the children have their lovely key people there to spend the day with, they were also joined by Laura (who is currently on maternity leave) and Eliza and as she’d spent so much time caring for them in Free-Flow beforehand it was great she could share in their special day making memories together before it is time to leave Jollies ready for school journeys to begin.

From seeing Izzy and Wizzy the meerkats and finding out they get a mouse and an egg for breakfast (they like to break the shell to get the yolk out apparently!), stroking Tiger (the rabbit) and Cutie Eyes (the Guinea pig), feeding the ravenous lambs… we loved seeing their tails wagging with joy as they guzzled their milk bottles down, feeding the carrots to all the animals in the paddocks was amazing too and we had our best ‘flat hands’ so we didn’t get nibbled fingers!

They made us giggle as they tickled our hands as they took the carrots from them and quite a few left us covered in slimy saliva It was ok though as our children knew the drill and we washed our hands constantly after touching and feeding the animals (as we’d listened to Aidy VERY carefully!) and we knew not to rub our eyes or put our hands in our mouths either.

We loved seeing the calves and the lambs and the piglets too…. Everywhere we looked it was fascinating and the farm was just awesome!

Swithens Farm also has some excellent play areas which we made sure to make use of; we especially loved the soft play, trampolines, tractors and the beach!!

Before catching the bus back to Jollies we popped into the farm shop and chose a toy to spend our pennies on…

Our children adored their BIG school leavers treat day and Aidy said they should be so very proud of themselves as they’d been AMAZING and had been a credit to Jollies

Thank you guys for a simply fabulous day at the farm!!! xxxx

It’s a mint eating dinosaur?!?!

When Elise went outside with her children they made a dinosaur touch and smell sensory tray together… They got some bark for the dinosaurs to stomp over and through and they picked some mint leaves for the dinosaurs to eat and for the children to smell too; as they loved the smells created when the leaves were rubbed and sniffed!

The children found it hilarious when they were feeding the leaves to the dinosaurs and it seemed that they were all refuelled after their feast as their stomping and roaring escalated as they ended up leaving their tray when they explored the whole garden terrain!! Xxxx

Sensory ways and dinosaur days spent playing here at Jollies… xxxx

Another lovely session on the story bus with Sally and co. Some fabulous actions and joining in with the stories and singing before we read our own choice of books in the hidey holes!

Possums have been training to be top gardeners in our Jolly garden recently…They have been busy learning about looking after our environment by watering the plants around our garden!

Natalie kept on filling up the watering cans and instructing her little ones about what to do and they all did a smashing job giving our plants a good old drink… We think we can safely say our children love gardening in Possums!!!! We think their mummies and daddies will be finding they’ve got some super helpers for in their gardens at home… xxxx